Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow is calling on the Oswego Common Council to approve what he says will be the city's most effective code enforcement measure to date - a tool that would target vacant houses. The 200 block of West 7th Street in Oswego a quaint neighborhood. The streets are lined with well-kept homes, making the house at 213 stand out like a sore thumb. the vacant property's cement steps are crumbling, the siding is rotting and a bright orange sign on the front window warns neighbors...

In the days since actor and progressive activist Cynthia Nixon indicated she might want to run against Andrew Cuomo in a Democratic primary for governor, Cuomo has made a number of public appearances and taken several steps to shore up his political base.

A real-estate venture formerly run by Jared Kushner falsified construction permits for dozens of apartment buildings it owned in New York City, allowing the company to push out rent-controlled tenants and boost profits when it later sold the properties, according to a report by The Associated Press.

Local criminal justice advocates are trying to put pressure on Albany to reform the justice system.

A local coalition is trying to build support for proposed legislation in Albany that, among other things, eliminates cash bail for misdemeanors or low-level felonies. Syracuse attorney and activist Herve Comeau said the inequalities of the cash bail system really hit home for him last December.

Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow is calling on the Oswego Common Council to approve what he says will be the city's most effective code enforcement measure to date - a tool that would target vacant houses.

The 200 block of West 7th Street in Oswego a quaint neighborhood. The streets are lined with well-kept homes, making the house at 213 stand out like a sore thumb. the vacant property's cement steps are crumbling, the siding is rotting and a bright orange sign on the front window warns neighbors that it's a dangerous building.

The inspiration arrived in a haze at a Paul McCartney concert a few years ago in San Francisco.

"People in front of me started lighting up and then other people started lighting up," says Matthew Springer, a biologist and professor in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "And for a few naive split seconds I was thinking to myself, 'Hey, they can't smoke in AT&T Park! I'm sure that's not allowed.' And then I realized that it was all marijuana."

Last week, when #firingFriday was trending on Twitter and White House aides had to be reassured by the chief of staff that no changes were imminent, President Trump embraced the uncertainty in public statements. His willingness to say "you're fired" to so many people, so early in his administration is just another way Trump is unlike those who have come before him.

Vladimir Putin won a landslide election victory on Sunday — the fourth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea — extending his presidency by another six years as he easily breezed past a field of minor candidates left by the disqualification of his only credible rival.

If Putin serves to the end of his new fourth term, which expires in 2024, he would become the longest-serving leader of Russia since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Authorities in Austin, Texas, responded to an explosion in the southwest part of the city late Sunday, with the city's emergency medical service tweeting that it caused two serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Britain is accusing Russia of manufacturing and stockpiling a deadly nerve agent in violation of international law. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says he has evidence that Russia has been creating and storing the toxin, which was recently used to poison a former spy in England.